Geelong Artillery Orderly Rooms
200 Myers Street, GEELONG VIC 3220 - Property No 311682
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Statement of Significance
B Listed - Regional Significance
/nSTATEMENT OF SIGNIFICANCE
/nHistorically, given its high integrity, it is a continuing expression of the beginnings of government paid armed forces.
/nArchitecturally, the final stage in a drill hall design theme, which commenced in the 1880s and is seen herein its most developed form, as marked by its detached quarters. It is one of a small distinctive group of buildings created for the new militia defence forces and an exotic prelude to the numerous pedestrian army buildings seen more prevalently after World War One.
/n/nREFERENCE
/n/nNOW 3.3.00
/nNOW 30.6..00
/nSee W Span drill hall report
/nSee Butler< Williamstown Rifle Range Victorian Rifle Club Rooms 1989 report to the Urban Land Authority.
/nWillingham, sheet 160, cites GA 30/10/79
/nSpan, Castlemaine Orderly Room Report for Charge of Annuity, 1983
/n-
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Geelong Artillery Orderly Rooms - Physical Description 1
DESCRIPTION
Matching almost exactly the original working drawings elevations, today's drill hall possesses all of the picturesque timber fantasy of he first 1880s designs, with its broad attic style gable and ornate timber detailing. Although originally reminiscent of Swiss Chalet medieval domestic architecture, the design translates well into the prevailing Edwardian villa styles which also used trussed gables and ornate timber detailing. The ribbed red brick chimneys are also interchangeable with Geelong Edwardian house chimneys. The similarity is most evident in the adjoining quarters, a double-fronted asymmetrically planned verandahed timber house which also has a trussed gable. Only the verandah detailing differs from typical domestic practice, using the established Public Works verandah bracket instead of the fretted designs seen locally, perhaps best in Connor Street.
External Integrity
Generally original the residence fence has been replaced sympathetically. Rear detached additions from differing periods may be related to the hall.
Streetscape
A major and distinctive corner building in a valuable government cum ecclesiastical streetscape, linked by use and the large detached building forms. Not in a precinct.
Veterans Description for Public
Geelong Artillery Orderly Rooms - Veterans Description for Public
The Geelong Artillery Orderly Rooms are located at 200 Myers Street. Builder, W. Neville, won the contract to erect this timber drill hall for the Geelong Artillery, in February 1900, promising occupation of it by the following August. By June the adjoining sergeant majors residence was near, complete and a start was to be made on the orderly room. Thought to derive from standard designs done under S.E. Bindley of the Victorian Public Works Department, this is a late but complete example of the type seen in more a decorative form at Ballarat and Castlemaine.
Drill Halls or orderly rooms developed to serve first the volunteer forces in the early Victorian era and second the government militia forces of the 1880s and onwards. In Geelong's case, a drill hall and prefabricated gunroom were erected in Ryrie Street in 1863 for the Royal Victorian Volunteer Artillery, which had been established in the previous year. The gunroom was relocated in the late 1870s to the rear of the old Congregational Church which served as the drill hall. Since its operation as a vinegar works, however, the gunroom has been largely altered. Each era determined a particular architectural form and style and, within these, there were differences between architects. Typically they graduated from the single room masonry hall, as survives at Warrnambool to the hall, plus ancillary rooms, down one or both sides, which provided separate officers and men's quarters. At Geelong, freestanding quarters for the sergeant-major was an extension of this principle.
Geelong also had a gunroom at the rear, separate commanding officer and non-commissioned officer en points a men's room and a reading room. It vied With Ballarat 1885 as the best equipped drill hall. Using the broad-gabled almost Swiss Chalet form, he Public Works Department architects pursued a similar design, from the rash of hall construction in the 88Ostil the Commonwealth architects replaced them in serving the military in 1913. Geelong's however, was the last in what has been termed the SE Bindley (public works) architect style :
'an impressive building showing some American influence. It's layout messing and truss form are similar to Bindley's 1889 Orderly Rooms. However it's decorative program departs from Bindley's with rectilinear window surrounds double-posted portal and oriel elements, and squat finial mouldings'
American influence aside Geelong's drill hall compares stylistically and in layout with drill halls at Ballarat, Castlemaine and St. Kilda.
Heritage Study and Grading
Greater Geelong - Geelong City Urban Conservation Study
Author: Graeme Butler
Year: 1993
Grading:
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FORMER SCOTTISH CHIEFS HOTELVictorian Heritage Register H0662
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CORIO VILLAVictorian Heritage Register H0193
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MERCHISTON HALLVictorian Heritage Register H0192
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